Preschool Activities with Pete the Cat

The virtual book club for kids is featuring author Eric Litwin during the month of November. Eric Litwin is the author of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes, Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons, Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes, and Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. These books are favorites of my boys and are perfect for preschool aged students. Not only will preschoolers adore this cool cat, they can also learn color words, number concepts, school readiness, and more. These are the perfect books for preparing young readers for school.

Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes

This month we chose the book Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. In this story, Pete gets a new pair of white shoes and he loves his shoes. In fact, he loves them so much, he sings a song about them. He sings, “I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes…” As he is going, he steps in a pile of strawberries. Instead of crying, Pete the Cat, exudes positivity and sings about his “new” red shoes. He sings, “I love my red shoes. I love my red shoes….” Pete steps in a rainbow of items as the book continues but he always responds with a happy song.

Identifying Color Words

For our book activity, we chose to focus on reading and writing color words. First we read the book and talked about color words. When students are trying to identify new words, it is helpful to talk about features of the words. For emergent readers, talk about the beginning letter sounds. You could also talk about the length of the word. For example, red is a short word and brown is a longer word. For older readers, you might want to talk about patterns in the words. Have your child point out patterns they notice in the words. For example, brown has a consonant blend- br and the ow sound and white has a wh consonant blend.

Reading Color Words in Isolation

After reading the book, provide pictures of colored shoes and sentence strips with color words written on them. Have children try to match the color word to the correct color of shoe. I found pictures of colored shoes on Microsoft word and printed them in color. You could also draw your own or let the students draw and color the shoes before the activity.

Reading Color words in Context

After practicing the words in isolation a few times, see if your children can recognize the words in text. The book, Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes provides a perfect simple repeating refrain for early readers. Write the repeating poem on chart paper or sentence strips that are placed in a pocket chart. Give students a pile of pictures of colored shoes. Have children draw a picture card, name the color, and then change the color words in the poem and reread. If children are locating the color word from a group of color words, ask, “How did you know that was the color word (white)?” Have students talk about features they see in words. You may choose to repeat this poem over several days and gradually release the responsibility of locating and placing color words in the correct places. You might also teach the sight words “I love my”

Writing extension

After locating and reading color words, let your young writers try writing color words in their own version of Pete the Cat. Give children a form that says “Pete stepped in a pile of _______. What color did it turn his shoes? _________________”

If your kids haven’t met Pete the Cat, I guarantee they will love him. These books not only teach a love of learning but a love of life itself. The moral of Pete’s story is, “No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song… because it’s all good.”